Soldier of the Commonwealth
by Riptide2500
Summary: So I had an idea to do this with a new game I started. It stars Wayne Johnson as the Sole Survivor, and focused around him and Cait. This is only the first chapter, so it's mostly a preview and I also wanted to start to show the relationship between the two because it is pretty central to how I want the story to play out. M because Fallout and language.


_Fuck me_.

That's the thought that was racing through Cait's head. After all those years of holding in her feelings, her past, what had screwed her life up so much, she'd finally spilled to someone. To Wayne. The man Tommy had essentially sold her to.

The Irish girl had just told Wayne her whole story. How her parents had abused her, and broken her leg when she had tried to run away. How the raiders she'd been sold to used her for their...entertainment. And finally, how she'd killed her parents when she had gotten free of the raiders.

And she regretted it.

Wayne hadn't responded yet. Cait was terrified the one person that she'd come to rely on shunned her for what'd she'd done.

"I'm proud of you Cait."

And with that, she was completely bewildered.

"You-you're proud a me? Not gonna lie, I wasn't expectin that one."

The man opposite her explained. "It took guts. To not only endure all that but to have justice against your parents. You had the courage to stand up for yourself and escape the hell you were living in. Of course I'm proud of you."

The redhead smiled in relief. "I...I think I needed that. Thank ya."

Wayne smiled back. "There's nothing you could say that would drive me away Cait. I'll always be here for you."

Cait's cheeks turned as red as her hair. "Oh! I...ummm, well...that's...that's not what I expected ya to say." The Irish girl's blush deepened. She laughed nervously. "Sorry, I didn't realize ya cared that much about me. And here I thought I was bein' stupid botherin' you with me problems. It feels good ta know if I need ya, ya'll be there for me...and I'll always be there for you too."

Wayne put a hand on her bare shoulder. Her heart began beating a thousand times a minute, and mentally she scolded herself. She might trust Wayne, but she would not let herself fall for anyone.

He replied, "You can count on it" giving her one of his rare genuine smiles. Her adamant resolve melted, and she felt her knees go weak. She cleared her throat, and Wayne took his hand back. "Right, so then...uhh...how's about we keep moving?"

One Week Later:

"Aw shite! I swear I'll kill whoever built this fuckin' courser."

Cait and Wayne were pinned down at the top of the gunner base in Greentech Genetics. Well, ex-base. The Institute Courser the pair had been chasing since they'd returned from the Glowing Sea. Currently taking cover behind a terminal database and a desk, they were trying to figure out how to kill the courser before it killed them.

"Wayne! If ya got any ideas now would be a good time!"

The vault survivor just grinned. "This is nothing compared to Shanghai."

The redhead looked over at him. "What?"

"Nevermind. Just toss me a pulse grenade."

Cait pulled the last one from her belt and tossed it over to the ex-soldier. "Make it count."

Wayne peeked his head over the top of the desk, checking the location of the courser. He quickly ducked back when a few blue energy beams zapped over his buzz cut. "I need you to lay down cover fire after I chuck this grenade. We should be out of the blast radius."

She nodded, and Wayne slapped the top of the grenade on the ground and then passed it over. The courser's fire momentarily paused as the electric arcs zapped the courser. The mercenary leaped over the desk and charged the lethal Institute agent, as Cait opened up fire with the combat rifle she'd picked up just a few minutes prior from a fallen gunner.

Just before Wayne reached the courser, he fired again. Cait cried out as the one shot the courser had left in his fusion cell hit her arm, and she fell back. Wayne raked his bladed brass knuckles against the courser's face, ripping open its jaw. Wayne brought his fist back up, but the courser blocked his blow and hit his wrist, forcing the knuckles out of his fist. Wayne pulled the courser up around his shoulder and slammed him into the ground. He whipped out his combat knife and slit the courser's throat. Synthetic blood began spurting out of the wound. Wayne pushed the synth's head against the ground until it stopped struggling, the man that had killed it drenched in its blood.

He breathed heavily, kneeling above the fallen opponent. He stabbed the knife into the dead courser's chest, and then stood up. He wiped blood from his face and glanced over at Cait. "Oh shit Cait. Are you alright?" Noticing that she was clutching her arm and grimacing, he kneeled beside her.

"Damn it! Damn it all! The fucker hit me arm!" Gingerly, Wayne lifted her hand off the wound. The skin was burned, hot enough that steam was coming off of it. Wayne inhaled through his teeth. Cait was grimacing, her face tightened in pain. He hated to see her like this, and snatched the last stimpack he had from his belt. After a few moments, her expression eased. "Thanks. I guess my Irish luck didn't do me much good, did it?" Wayne grinned and pulled her back up to her feet. Cait's heart fluttered at the touch of him, and she immediately looked away and towards the imprisoned synth just in case she blushed.

After releasing the synth, Cait got to work checking the bodies of the gunners and any nearby cabinets for supplies. Wayne dug the courser's chip out of its head. As they were leaving the building, Wayne picked up a lever-action rifle one of the gunners had been carrying. Inspecting it, he noticed there was still one bullet left in the chamber.

"Whatcha' got there? A new toy?" Cait asked, coming up alongside him.

Wayne aimed at a wrecked turret and pulled the trigger. The bullet fired and when it hit the turret a small dot of plasma was visible.

"Plasma infused rifle. Nice." Wayne commented.

Cait stifled a laugh, and patted his shoulder. "Aye. Too bad ya can't get that caliber bullet anywhere in the Commonwealth."

Heading back to their base at the Red Rocket station, the pair paused with Dogmeat underneath an overpass to take a look at Cait's wound.

Wayne trickled water over the wound to clean it. "Does that hurt?"

"It hurts like hell."

"The water?"

The redhead sighed. "The wound, ya idiot. The water helps." Cait neglected to add that Wayne's hand on her arm made her excited enough to forget the pain.

After wrapping a makeshift bandage around her arm, the pair stood up. Dogmeat stuck his nose in the air and looked past them, barked once and darted past Cait. The canine's shoulder brushed against her legs, and pushed her forwards she stumbled forward.

Wayne caught her before she hit the ground. While she was still in his arms he shrugged. "I wouldn't want to have to stitch you up again." She blushed and corrected her stance.

Pushing some of her messy red hair out of her face, she replied "Or maybe ya just like to be able to touch me. Who knows."

The two stared at each other in silence, still holding on to each other. Wayne began to lean in slowly and Cait began reaching her face up.

Then Dogmeat tackled Wayne.

Cait immediately forgot what she'd been doing and laughed as hard as she could as Dogmeat barked in Wayne's face while the merc tried to get the German Shepard off him.

"Dogmeat, c'mon boy, get off."

"WOOF!"

Pretty soon Cait stopped laughing, but continued smiling. She whistled and Dogmeat hopped off his master. Wayne wiped his face against his sleeve, getting rid of his dog's saliva.

"Well then, looks like someone else wanted to give ya a kiss instead!" The Irish girl joked.

Wayne rolled his eyes, a small smile breaking out. "Ah whatever."

As soon as Wayne was standing again Dogmeat took off.

"Dogmeat!"

The dog froze after a short bit, and then turned around to see where Wayne was.

He barked, as if telling the two to hurry up. They sighed, and then followed.

Upon reaching the dog they saw a battle between a bunch of robots in front of them. They were about to turn around when a laser hit right between Dogmeat's front paws.

Wayne took his automatic combat rifle from his back, and turned to Cait.

"Stay here. I'll take care of this."

"Like hell you will! I'm coming with ya!"

"You're injured, Cait. Stay. Here."

"I'm getting into that fight."

"Dogmeat, guard," he said, pointing to Cait.

The dog barked and parked himself in front of the redhead. She tried to get around him but he blocked her.

"Are ya fuckin' kiddin' me?"

Wayne shrugged. "Sorry."

As he ran down the hill into battle, she threw her hands up in exasperation, and sat down in front of Dogmeat, looking at him.

"Why couldn't you be the injured one?"

Dogmeat tilted his head and then started licking her.

"Alright, alright," Cait told the dog as she tried to push him away. "But I still want ta knock some skulls."

A few minutes later, Wayne had destroyed the last robot. He whistled to Dogmeat and called over Cait. "Okay, robots are dead!"

He watched as Cait walked down the hill next to Dogmeat. He would never admit it to her or anyone, but the Irish redhead captivated him. She was beautiful, and her voice and warm touch always made him freeze.

He shook out of his day dream state when she approached. He opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a blue robot.

"Thank you for helping me in that fight. I was sure to meet the same fate as my friends."

A few human bodies were stacked up in a campsite behind the robot.

Wayne apprehensively asked "Who are you?"

"My name is Ada. This was the third robot attack in two weeks. It's time to stop their assault and confront their leader; The Mechanist."

Cait told Ada, "Ha. That's a ridiculous name."

"As ridiculous as it sounds, it makes them no less of a threat."

Ada turned back to Wayne. "You've shown a willingness to help others here. Will you help me?"

Wayne shook his head. "Listen, Ada, I don't just help out. If I do something I usually get paid for it."

"You came down here to fight these robots."

"That's because they almost shot my dog."

"The mechanist's forces have become increasingly aggressive. Soon everyone, including you and your wife will become a target."

Wayne looked confused. "Wife? What're you..." He glanced over at Cait, who had seemed to arrive at the same conclusion as she had.

Both of them scrambled to correct her error, stumbling over their words.

"No, no, no no no, that's not, we're not..."

"I mean the two of us aren't, he's not my..."

"We're not married." They both confirmed at the same time, both a little redder than they had been before.

"My apologies. The odds of two traveling companions of the opposite sex not being romantically involved are 8.592%."

Wayne snapped back. "Well we aren't."

"But do you understand now? The Mechanist won't stop unless someone stops them. And I cannot do it alone."

Cait looked at him. "What're ya gonna do?"

Wayne set his jaw. The old American soldier in him took over. "I guess I'm going to kill a shit ton of robots."

"What do ya mean you? We are." Cait argued.

"Cait, you're still injured. You can't come."

"Bullshit. I can and I will."

Ada spoke up. "He is correct. You wound will prevent you from using that arm effectively. You will be more of a liability than an asset."

Wayne winced. If he knew Cait, she wouldn't take kindly to being called a liability.

Cait stormed over to Ada, and yelled at the robot. "I AM NOT A LIABILITY!"

As she kept screaming, Ada commented on her. "I've scanned you have high amounts of Psycho in your bloodstream. Is this why you have an elevated temper?"

Cait went silent, unsure what to say. Uneasy about whatever had just happened, Wayne put his hand on her back and guided her over to the ruined street.

"Head to the base Cait. I'll take care of this and be back in a week, give or take."

She managed to stammer out "N,no. No, I'm coming. I don't give a damn what that pile of junk says."

Wayne put his hands on her arms and squeezed gently. A bolt of electricity seemed to flow through the both of them.

"Cait. Don't listen to the robot. Listen to me. I'll send Dogmeat with you. But I want you to be safe. Just head back and recuperate. Okay? Please?"

She sighed, wanting to keep arguing more. But his touch was making her thoughts muddled. So she reluctantly agreed.

"Fine, I'll head back. But it's yer funeral."

Wayne nodded as Cait and Dogmeat departed. He turned back to Ada.

Ada commented "She seems to be very illogical."

Wayne chuckled. "Yes. Yes she is."

"I predict a 93.76 chance that you will become romantically involved."

"You said your name is Ada, right?"

"Yes sir."

"Well Ada, shut up and find the Mechanist."


End file.
